Taken by Zayne Seah
Fitness on a budget. Meet the Actxa Swift, a S$49 fitness tracker that seeks to be with you every step of the way as you kick off your fitness journey. This budget fitness tracker looks good, and feels good. Capable of tracking your steps, distance, calories burnt and sleep quality, this fitness tracker covers most of your needs, without taking a swing at your bank account.
Design
Taken by Zayne Seah
The Actxa Swift has a rubber clasp that comes in a few different colours I got the Sky Blue variant, which was absolutely my style. The outer ring of the clasp is jet black and the inner ring is blue in colour. The clasp feels comfortable on the wrist, so leaving it on for long durations isn’t much of an issue.
Taken by Zayne Seah
Within the clasp, you will find a pill-like tracker. On this display, you will be able to scroll through a few screens, the time, steps taken, distance travelled, calories burnt and time spent on the go.
Taken by Zayne Seah
The screen has a basic digital interface which looks good enough, but it does appear rather dim under harsh sunlight, making it hard to read in the middle of the day when you are outdoors.
The tracker is placed within a cradle for charging. This cradle will be pushed into a USB wall plug and upon doing so, you will be able to pair it with your phone via bluetooth.
Fitness Tracking Functions
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It’s a pretty basic tracker, so step counting is the main highlight of the Actxa Swift, and that’s pretty much all you need to be honest. Trying to hit 10,000 steps a day is a great way to keep yourself fit and revving up your metabolism. Chances are, if you are a desk jockey and an office worker, you might even find it hard to hit 5,000 steps, half of the daily recommended step count.
Taken by Zayne Seah
Step tracking works great. It’s accurate and reliable. The Swift manages to recognise proper steps and doesn’t miscount random acts of flailing your arms around as walking movements. Typing on the computer also doesn’t generate sufficient movement to trick your Actxa Swift, which misleads some other trackers.
Distance travelled and calories burnt are an estimation off your Actxa Swift’s step count. I believe that the algorithms used are fairly standard in today’s marketplace, so there isn’t anything that stood out too prominently here.
Sleep tracking is decent, it does help track movements as you sleep to give you a good indicator on your sleep quality, which is more than I can say for other trackers at this price. The silent alarms that vibrate to wake you up are also incredibly useful. They don’t jolt you out of your sleep like noisy stressful alarm clocks, but buzz silently, as if nudging you to get up. This would help incredibly if you are sleeping with a partner that wakes up later than you, so you don’t disturb him/her as they rest soundly.
App Interface
I find the screen on the Actxa Swift sufficient for most of my needs, but the app does still come into play when you want to view past records, log your weight and monitor your progress. The interface is simplistic and at the same time, easy to navigate. All the necessary features are displayed neatly for you as you can see.
Verdict
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For S$49, it’s hard to find a tracker that beats the Actxa Swift in terms of design and functionality. The Mi Band Pulse might be able to do one better than the Swift since it has the ability to monitor your heart rate, but it doesn’t come with a screen like the Swift. For the average consumer looking to improve his fitness level and to quantify his fitness biometric, I think that grabbing the Actxa Swift is no doubt a good start.
About the Aut
hor
A Dentist-To-Be Dabbling in Tech Journalism:
Zayne is a writer who reports for VR-Zone, Stuff Singapore and The New Paper on all things tech-related. Follow this geek on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!
